


Please Don't Hit Zero

by Emily_P



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: F/F, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-03
Updated: 2015-04-03
Packaged: 2018-03-21 00:06:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,692
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3670101
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Emily_P/pseuds/Emily_P
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Soul Mate AU.<br/>Everyone is born with a countdown clock on their wrist, counting down to the exact moment you'll meet your soulmate. Piper wants to avoid hers as much as she can.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Please Don't Hit Zero

Things Piper hated: 

  *        Traffic jams
  *        Hamburgers 
  *        Romeo and Juliet
  *        The count down clock on her wrist



Every minute of every day, the little watch ticked down to when she was going to meet her soul mate. This was the person she was supposed to be with forever, the person she would love and who would love her back. She didn't want any of that.

 Her father had found his soul mate, her mother, and then she left. For no reason, just one day she was gone. This was the woman who was suppose to be in his life forever, not leave him alone with a daughter and a watch that read" 00 00 00 00 00 00" permanently. 

That was it. Once you meet them, or once they die, the clock ends, and just stays on your wrist forever, reminding you of what you have or what you don't. She had seen her father go through too much because of the clock, and decided she didn't want anything to do with it. 

She wore stacks of bracelets on her left arm, and long sleeves when it wasn't too hot, just to cover up the clock, so she could pretend, if only for a little while, that she doesn't have one. 

Unfortunately it was hard to pretend it was bullshit or just didn't exist all together when your best friend had already met her soul mate. At twelve years old, too. She refused to check hers. The last time she had she was at camp with Annabeth, and she had just met Percy (her soul mate.) Piper looked down at her clock and wondered if she really had someone that special out there. That was the last she would have of it. 

Annabeth, however, was persistent in trying to get Piper to see things in a more positive light. 

"Come on, when was the last time you even checked you clock?" She asked on a girl’s night in. 

"When you met Percy for the first time." She said casually, eating popcorn and trying to enjoy Pulp Fiction. 

"Eleven years?!" Annabeth was a logical person, and as such she didn't understand why her best friend was so against something that made life so much easier. 

"I don't know when you're going to understand that this," she held up her well covered left wrist, "doesn't mean anything to me." 

Annabeth rolled her eyes. "You could at least check it every decade or so." 

"Fine." Piper pulled up her sleeve and pulled off half her bracelets to see her clock. "Three years, four months, three days, eighteen hours, eleven minutes, and forty eight seconds. Happy?"

Annabeth's grin was smug. "Very."

"What about you, when are you and Percy finally going to get married?"

"When we can finally afford it."

They could afford it about three years later. And being the maid of honor, Piper found herself at every dress fitting, hair and make up appointment, and shoe shopping adventure Annabeth had to have. Which is how, forty-two days before the wedding, Piper found her in the bridal salon, for the fourth time.

Annabeth stepped out of the dressing room in her dress, which, by the grace of god, fit perfectly. It was short and simple -- white, with a blue belt around her waist, going only her knees. Annabeth chose not to spend a lot of money on her dress, the destination, or decorations. Instead she spent her money on the more important things: the bar, the food, and the cake. Piper knew she was a friend with this girl for a reason. And hey, why shouldn't she have fun at her wedding, she waited fourteen years for it.

"You look awesome! Do you like it?" Piper asked.

"I love it, it's perfect." She had never seen Annabeth smile so much because of a dress.

"So is this it? Can we leave and never come back?" Now that she saw Annabeth was happy, it was time to ask the real questions. 

"Almost. We just have your dress to go." Piper sat up, she had already fit and ordered her dress. What was she talking about? "I want you to be in something different than all the other bridesmaids, so I took your measurements from the other dress and ordered a new one." 

"But I already paid for the other one." Who was she kidding, if Annabeth wanted something, she got it done, why even bother questioning it.

"I know, and the new dress is the same price, they just switched the order, and the dress is here today and I want you to try it on." Annabeth was nearly pleading. 

"Only because I love you." Piper could say no to Annabeth no problem, but not when she had waited fourteen years for something. And she could see how happy all of this made Annabeth, so she let herself be dragged to anther room to try on a dress of her own. 

Okay, so the dress was stunning, and it made her look pretty hot. It was better than the other dress by far; the new red color suited her much better than the pink, and the synched waist looked better than the empire one of the other dress. 

She stepped out of the dressing room, and Annabeth smiled wide, then her smile fell.

"Take those bracelets off." 

Piper wined "Whyyyy?" 

"Because you're not wearing them in the wedding." 

Anything for Annabeth, it's her wedding. Piper pulled off her bracelets, and turned to face Annabeth. 

Annabeth smiled wide again. "Perfect, just one thing..." She walked up to Piper, grabbed her wrist and looked at it. Piper groaned. "Zero years, one month, eleven days, six hours, four minutes, and thirteen seconds." Piper pulled her wrist back, and Annabeth froze. "One month and eleven days... that’s the day of the wedding. You're meeting your soul mate on my wedding day." Annabeth looked so proud, like she orchestrated the whole thing. Well, maybe she did. 

"I guess it'll be a magical day for the both of us." Piper said sarcastically. 

Her "magical day" started at three am to help Annabeth get ready. Finally, at seven p.m the best part of every wedding started -- the bar was opened. All she wanted to do at this point was get so shitfaced that if she did meet her soul mate tonight, she would never remember them, then she could move on with her life. 

Percy and Annabeth walked into the reception hall and Chuck Berry's "You Never Can Tell" started to play. Piper turned to her friend Leo, who was the only person she knew who had a longer wait to meet their soul mate than she did. 

"They look awesome." She said to him. 

"Hell yeah they do, you better save me a dance though, McLean, or you'll never hear the end of it." He said back.

"Of course I will." She smiled at him. 

"You know, if you're not too busy dancing with your beloved." He was teasing her, but that didn't the familiar stomach ace she had had all day. She made a sour face and drank the campaign she was supposed to save for the toast. "Touchy subject I guess. I'll get you more Champaign." Leo said, standing up and leaving Piper to watch the rest of the dance alone. 

One hour, seven minutes, and thirty-one seconds to go. 

Several dances and drinks later, Piper's clock was down to the minutes, and she suddenly felt very ill. 

She quickly excused herself to the bathroom, grabbing some water on the way. 

She nearly ran into the stall, but after taking some deep breaths and a few sips of water, she felt better, and decided to just try and calm down. Hell, maybe she could even hide in here for the rest of the night and avoid meeting this person at all. 

She got some damp, cool paper towels and put them on the back of her neck to cool her down. Things were going to be okay, they were.

"Oh shit." She heard from one of the stalls behind her. A red head in a green dress walked out. "Hey," She turned to Piper, "do you have a tampon?" She was cute -- freckles, green eyes, curly hair. 

"Um, yeah," Piper fished through her bag and pulled on out and handed it to the girl. She got a good look at her wrist while she was doing it. 

00 00 00 00 00 00 

The girl saw her own too, and they looked up at each other. A mixture of panic, shock, and fear ran through Piper and things started to blur. 

"Well," The redhead said,  "of all the times I imagined meeting my soul mate, I never imagined it would happen when she was handing me a tampon." She laughed; Piper just dashed into a stall and threw up. The girl walked up behind her, and pulled Piper's hair out of the way. "I also imagined I'd be holding her hair back while she puked. I told Percy the open bar was gonna cause problems."

"I'm not drunk." Piper protested. 

"I'm Rachel." Piper threw up again. That was it, she was sure. She sat up, grabbing some toilet paper to wipe her mouth, then flushed it, not looking at Rachel. “I guess this will be a funny story to tell the kids some day.” 

That wasn’t it. Piper leaned over a reached again. 

“Sorry, I have a feeling I’m freaking you out.” Rachel said. 

Piper held up her thumb and forefinger, signaling “just a little” as she took a deep breath, hoping that was the last of it. 

“Alright, well here,” Rachel grabbed a lipstick from her bag and some toilet paper, “is my number.  We’re sort of you know ... destined to be together. So when you’re ready give me all call.” 

“Thanks,” Piper said, “I will, hopefully when I’m not puking and you’re not ... menstruating.” 

Rachel laughed. “Thanks, I can’t wait to hear from you...” 

“Piper, my name is Piper.” 

“I can’t wait to hear from you Piper.” Rachel smiled and left the bathroom, getting back to the party. 

 


End file.
